Airdate: Inside the Chinese Closet

SBS 2 screens a doco Inside the Chinese Closet which looks at the difficulty of coming out as gay in modern China, where traditional values still flourish.

Instead of being proud of his son, the father of a successful Chinese architect named Andy is worried. Andy, who lives in Shanghai, has come out of the closet, and his father is overcome with shame.

Cherry’s mother is struggling with a similar issue because her daughter is attracted to women.

Cherry’s family comes from rural China where homosexuality is widely regarded as unacceptable.
In search of a way to cover up their children’s sexualities, both parents conclude that their suffering would be eased by a marriage of convenience – followed by children.

Inside the Chinese Closet follows Andy and Cherry in their frantic efforts to find ‘acceptable’ partners. They can be themselves when they’re out with friends, but they attend a ‘fake marriage fair’ where gay men and women attempt to make matrimonial deals with one another. Andy and Cherry are courageous and extraordinarily candid in their presentation of a thorny issue in China, and one that is usually hidden from view.

Their stories shed light on a nation in transition. China is modernising rapidly, but older generations are still clinging to old-fashioned values.

Update: now out of schedule.